52 Ancestor Challenge—Week 2: “Challenge”

The word "challenge" brings up a list in most aspects of genealogical research: lack of records, difficult geography, surname changes, multiple spouses, maiden name mysteries, unknown parentage...the list goes on. One of my first "challenges" I solved in my own family tree was the identity of my 3rd great-grandmother, Isabel Reeves.

When I "inherited" from my mother much of the research on my family tree, my father's side of the tree was included. My dad did some of the research, but my mom was the driving force with all things family history. On my dad's pedigree, he had listed "Bell Reves" as married to "John Martin," both as my 3rd great-grandparents.  Once I dug into the records, I found them in the 1860 Census in Vincennes, Knox, Indiana as a family:

I quickly learned that Bell's full name was "Isabel," but concluded that she was far too young to have been the mother of Thomas (listed just below her). Either Thomas was the son of John Martin and a previous spouse or Thomas was Thomas' brother or a cousin (more on that answer in a future post, I'm sure). 

I found the family again in the 1880 Census still in Vincennes, Knox, Indiana, but Isabel was not listed. John Martin was listed with a new spouse named Elizabeth:

My 2nd great-grandfather, Michael, was listed just below Elizabeth, but was the son of John and Isabel, not John and Elizabeth. I assumed Isabel must have died. There was a gap in age between Emma J. Martin and Daniel Martin, so I hypothesized that Isabel must have died between 1865 and 1875 (when Daniel was likely born of Elizabeth, John Martin's second wife). I needed to find Isabel in the 1870 Census to get some answers.

It took a very long time to find them in the 1870 Census in Vincennes, Indiana because their surname was listed as "MORGAN!" 

Once finally finding Isabel and with her children, Michael (my 2nd great-grandfather) and Emily, this narrowed the year of death after July 1870 (the date of the 1870 Census) and before March 1875 (roughly when Daniel was conceived). This give me a less than four year window to find Isabel's death. 

One of the challenges was that I lived in Utah while researching an ancestor from Indiana (if I'd only known Juliana Szucs 20 years ago!). I didn't know much about the Martin/Reeves family--working class and her maiden name was Reeves. I noticed in the 1870 Census that a "Reves" family lived next door to John and Isabel. A 33 year-old man named "John Reves" with a wife named Margaret and a son named James. It was likely that John Reves was a brother to Isabel. This information lead to finding an earlier Census with Isabel Reeves listed with her brothers, John and William, and her GRANDMOTHER, Lucinda Reeves!

So, instead of finding the answers to Isabel's demise, I found more information about her origin. Isabel's parents had likely passed away and the three siblings: William, John, and Isabel, were living with grandma who was born in Maryland. These were fantastic breadcrumbs that could lead me back east to find the Reeves family. BUT, that is another rabbit hole...a common problem in this line of work.

And then, "Christmas" arrived on FamilySearch and Ancestry in the form of "The Indiana Births and Christenings, 1773-1933" database. I discovered birth information for a child named John G. Martin:

  

John Gerard Martin was born to John and Isabel(le) Reeves on 16 Oct 1870, so when the 1870 Census was taken, Isabel was pregnant with him, only three months away from his birth. The next record I found had the answer I was looking for: 

Isabel Reeves was the daughter of William and Francoise Joyeux Reeve(s). Isabel was christened on 27 March 1839 in Vincennes, Knox, Indiana. At age 16, Isabel married Irish-Canadian John Martin on 30 April 1855 at St. Francis Xavier Church in Vincennes, the church where their five children would later be baptized. 

John and Isabel's last child together was John Gerard Martin was born on 16 October 1870 and christened on 18 October 1870. Baby John G. Martin would only know his mother's embrace for the first nine days after his birth. Isabel Reeves Martin died on 25 October 1870 leaving her husband and her three living children to mourn her. 

Thanks to digitally preserved records made available online, I overcame this challenge in my family tree and even extended the line a few generations! I don't know exactly how Isabel died...perhaps it was due to complications after childbirth. Her dear son, John, would never remember those days with his mother, but, maybe...somehow...I helped her memory go beyond the records and the lost stories, so Isabel would be remembered once more.